THEY DID IT AGAIN!!

Report on the 1987-88"BRAILLE READERS ARE LEADERS" Contest

By Nadine Jacobson

One hundred and sixty-eight blind students
entered the 1987-88 contest and proved - once
again - that reading Braille is competitive, fun,
and rewarding!

This was the fourth year for the contest and
everyone who has been associated with it-judges,
parents, teachers, and, of course, students-has
learned so much. Perhaps the most important
thing we have learned is how much we have sold
blind kids short. Teachers have confessed that
they often did not expect their students to do so
well. I am ashamed to say it, but even I have been
astonished at the number of pages some of our
contestants have read. And I have been a Braille
reader since I entered school some ..., well, a number of years ago.

Students such as Mike Riley of Indiana and Cora
Mae Aase of New Jersey have set the standard.
In the 1986-87 contest, Mike, a senior at the Indiana
School For The Blind, read 17,169 Braille
pages. That same year Cora Mae, a fifth grader,
read 10,913 pages. (Mike Riley, by the way, was
one of the National Federation of the Blind
Scholarship winners this year, and his picture is
in the September-October issue of the Braille
Monitor.) What is really wonderful is how the
children are responding to the challenge.
One of the children in the 1987-88 contest
(second- through fourth grade category) had
read nearly 300 pages. She was happy with her
certificate and ribbon, but was a little puzzled
about why she hadn't won. Everyone around her
thought she had done exceptionally well. But
when she found out that the winners in her
category had each read over 3,000 pages, she
didn't cry or get upset or discouraged. She only
thought a moment and then said, "Well, I guess
I'll have to work harder next year." And I am sure
she will.

When we started this contest we anticipated certain
things. We were sure it would motivate blind
children to read more Braille. We assumed that
this in turn would improve Braille skills, and that
improved skills would enhance the enjoyment of
reading Braille. But I don't think we realized how
much the contest would increase expectations. It
only shows what is possible if we just give blind
kids training, encouragement, and opportunity!

Before we get to the list of the 1987-88 winners,
I want to say a word about the teachers, parents,
and librarians who served as certifying
authorities for these children.

Many of you teachers/librarians have had to
cojole or push reluctant students into entering
the contest. Once your student(s) was/were in the
contest, you had to work hard to find Braille
books. It wasn't unusual for you to transcribe
books yourself because insatiable little fingers
"ate up" the limited number of Braille books that
were available.

And parents. You set aside time every day to listen
to your Kindergartner or first-grader read to
you from his/her Braille books. You sighed and
turned away from the bedroom door when the
whispery sounds of fingers brushing a page informed
you that even though it was long past bedtime,
someone was still very much awake. You
hunted for Braille books, and then worried about
what your son or daughter was going to read next
year as he or she consumed every Braille book
you could find.

Your reward is not a ribbon or a certificate, nor
even the occasional hug or "Thank you" from son
or daughter or student. Your reward is seeing indifferent
or struggling Braille readers become
eager readers and learners, or seeing good students
achieve the recognition and status they
deserve. In the process, you have developed
more respect for Braille and greater expectations
for your student or child. You have also learned
- first hand - how true it is that the only disadvantage
of Braille is that we can't get enough of
it.

Teachers, parents, librarians - we thank you and
we salute you for a job well done!

Finally, here is the list of the 1987-88 winners.
You will notice that we have a special category of
winner this year. A parent had suggested to us
that we should find a way to recognize the students
who improve the most from one contest
year to the next. It seemed like a good idea to us,
so we instituted the "Most Improved" award. For
this award the student did not compete against
others, but against his/her past year's performance.
We selected the top five students out of
all the contestants and presented them with a
$5.00 certificate for the purchase of any game,
aid, or appliance sold by the National Federation
of the Blind.

Here is a list of the five "Most Improved" winners from the 1987- 88 contest. It includes the number
of pages read in the 1987-88 contest, the number
of pages read in the previous year's contest,
and the amount of increase between the two
years.